A nice quick project for a long winter’s day - one MASSIVE petticoat

There's still time to submit your paper proposals for SSHM 2026 In/Out @universityofleeds.bsky.social Submission deadline: 11 Jan 2026 5.00pm GMT sshm.org/sshm-2026/ @historynerdess.bsky.social #HistMed #HistSTM

We are pleased to launch today a new programme for early career researchers with @ihr.bsky.social & @chalkefestival.bsky.social 'Pitch my Project' is an opportunity for early career historians to present their research at the Chalke History Festival in 2026 bit.ly/44kfUMM Applications now invited.

200 years ago #OTD in 1825, the comic opera the Dame Blanche was 1st performed in Paris, in a mash-up of Walter Scott novels, with myriad lost heirs, ghostly ladies, dastardly stewards, and honest farmers. I spent November recreating Jenny’s dress from the show – here are some things I learned:

The CFP for the 2026 Society for the Study of French History conference has just been launched. Come join us in Groningen! frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/conference2/

Very happy to see our special issue on Song in Modern & Contemporary French Narrative out with Journal of Romance Studies @livunipress.bsky.social - co-edited with the magnificent, uplifting Jennifer Rushworth & with fascinating contributions on song in novels, translations, & autobiography ⬇️

Applications are now invited for the Society's 2026-27 Centenary PhD Fellowships for early career historians completing a doctorate bit.ly/48pWB72 Fellowships provide support of £8500 per award for 6 months and are held jointly with @ihr.bsky.social. Closing date: 31 January 2026 #Skystorians

When is this going to stop? Save Modern Languages at the University of Leicester 👇

Levelling up the dressing up

Looking forward to taking part in this session on impact and engagement this Friday with @drhelenmckelvey.bsky.social and Helen Abbott ⬇️

Just a reminder that Friday’s session on impact is open to all of our members. If you are not a member, but would like to become one, you can sign up here: uksdn.co.uk/membership/

'people who are multilingual are half as likely to show signs of accelerated biological ageing than are those who speak just one language.' Good thing that schools, universities and governments are so actively promoting modern languages then, isn't it? 1/2

Senior management’s left hand: you must provide a skills-based, employability-focused education! Senior management’s right hand: hey, let’s axe languages lads

‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...

Over £9million raised so far in this 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity' to do something truly meaningful for nature on a really large scale. It's absolutely doable. Can you help? Donate here 👉 www.wildlifetrusts.org/appeals/roth... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #wildlife

After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results: - AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2% - ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1% - ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%

BARS News: Independent Researcher Bursary Call for Applications Independent researchers with an interest in any aspect of Romantic Studies (literature, architecture, art, politics, culture, history etc) are invited to apply for the Independent Researcher Bursary.  www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6189

Hey authors, the official list of Anthropic works is available for searching. secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup

Six days, five libraries, 92 documents… Some of my favourite things to have stumbled on in the Paris archives this week: Saucy goings-on at the Moulin-Rouge - radiology and ultrasound live show, come see your heart beating, stomach working, and bones moving about in their joints!

The Boring Fund will be open for applications in November. If your small UK charity needs (up to) £200 to cover something boring like insurance or web hosting, take a look. They welcome donations too.

We’re launching the results of our research into gender balance in the History curriculum today. The report - The Great History Heist: Reclaiming Women’s Place in the History Curriculum - found only 12% of History lessons feature women as their main focus. 59% featured no women at all.

Well I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

Sutton Trust report: 'Only three categories were below the national average – male professional footballers at 5%, female professional footballers at 4% and the Northern Ireland assembly, where nobody attended a fee-paying school.' 1/2

“Cataclysmically bad” This new series of ECR blog posts on the French History Network makes for grim reading, perhaps grimmer even than some in UK #FrenchHistory might have realised. 1st post, anon ECRs in French History on what it’s like right now out there: frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6691/ 🗃️

PhD students working on diplomatic history - if you need more language training, apply for the Hogan Fellowship from @shafrhistorians.bsky.social I’m a previous winner & thrilled to be chairing the committee this year! ⬇️ #skystorians 🗃️ #diplohistory

Delighted to share our Call for Papers for the workshop *Object Stories in Health and Medicine 1700-1900*. Taking place online on 5 December. Pls share and consider submitting an object story! @rebeccawhiteley.bsky.social @unibirmingham.bsky.social www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/objec...

📣Only one week left to apply for the Senate House Library Visiting Fellowships 📣 In 2025-6 up to two awards of £1500 will be allocated to support a fellowship of up to two weeks. Deadline: 15 September 2025 More info 👇 https://tinyurl.com/ykudv9tn

If Nige is attacking us, reckon that means we’re doing something right…

🎉📣 Announcing the IHR Research Training Courses for October - December 2025. Visit the IHR website to register and find detailed information on each course: www.history.ac.uk/study-traini...

Calling the #arthistory hive mind ☎️I’m supervising a UG dissertation on late 19th-c French art this year, especially images of public spaces. It’s a while since I worked on this material; I’d love to hear recommendations of fab recentish studies. Link me your book/article! Brag for your friends!

Exciting news! @bavs-uk.bsky.social are hiring an ECR/Postgrad Rep to work alongside me to develop early career professional development and networking opportunities. 10th Sept deadline, details below ⬇️ DM me with any queries 🎉

There are tons of graphic novels, academic papers, film and TV scripts, & prose novels/nonfiction on the LibGen list Anthropic used. As settlement approaches, make it easy for the class action lawyers to contact you! Here’s how Part 1: is your work in Libgen? www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

"If your books were uploaded to LibGen/fed into the LLMs, add your name to the potential class action lawsuit by tomorrow." Details: LibDem database: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a... Attorney form: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au... (This information comes via a reliable Discord source.)

My first attempt at making a set of mid-nineteenth century undies and corset. Step aside Marks and Spencer.

For all of the educators trying to deal with AI, I did a deep dive in early June and these are the four articles I decided to assign to my students. 1. This is the longest of the bunch, but so wonderfully comprehensive. www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1...

What I'm seeing more and more is that AI is somehow worse for the people who use it frequently than I could have anticipated earlier this year, and one of the strongest arguments I can think of against it is what it does to them

My wonderful Nana never threw away anything sentimental - so today I came across her stash of birthday cards from her and my Grandad’s 21st birthdays in 1941 and 1944, lovingly saved for 80 years. And a massive hand-whittled wooden key from the Navy and Wrens chaps she worked with through WWII.

Buzzing after the most wonderful week learning 18th-century costume making skills - now just to get this fancy little number home on the train…

The next round of the BA Talent Development Scheme is open! 🚨I had one of these this year to build historic dress making skills for my performance history work - so culture studies people, don’t be put off, this is also for you!

#skyhistorians My uni, LJMU, have announced their VC PhD scholarships. Reach out to me if you are interested in doing something on homes; philanthropy/ charity; material culture and lived religion in the long c19th. These are competitive. You do need strong marks www.ljmu.ac.uk/research/phd...

Fellowship Opportunity! Corpus Christi College, Cambridge seeks one Early-Career Researcher (4 years). This year applications will be considered in the following subjects: Modern and Medieval Languages; Classics; Linguistics; Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNY167/e...

Big tartan energy in the 1820s dress workshop today 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Two evenings of solid sewing and the nearly-5-year-old’s birthday picture is ready 🥳

Chuffed to have finally finished this beast of an embroidery for my mum’s 70th - so SO many hours of work, good job she’s awesome 😅

Such SUCH a satisfying day working on the pleated waistline for a late 1820s stage costume for my @britishacademy.bsky.social Talent Development Grant.

A rare opportunity for a permanent lectureship in German in our fabulous School! Please circulate to your networks. @ucfl-eca.bsky.social @ucflangs.bsky.social

Are you working in #VisualMedicalHumanities with a specific focus on art, anatomy and medicine? The BMJ Medical Humanities has just released this CFP for articles on "visuality in medical practice and history". Looking forward to seeing how this moves the field forward! mh.bmj.com/pages/topic-...

As promised, here are the slides I shared with students to convince them to NOT use chatGPT and other artificial stupidity. TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄

Everyone should read Sam's painfully truthful account of precarity, esp. those who haven't lost years & years of youth & life to its mill. James Illingworth & I wrote about our own experiences & the impact on French in 2024 & it has got measurably worse since then doi.org/10.3366/nfs....

Do you love an exhibition? Have you been to the Musee d'Orsay recently? Or the Kyoto Costume Institute? Or the National Museum of New Delhi? Or the Smithsonian? Or..... We're commissioning exhibition reviews of any events engaging with the long 19th century and its legacies. Get in touch!